Friday, 9 August 2013

GAME OF THRONES poised to become HBO's biggest-ever show

HBO has updated it's information on the third season of Game of Thrones. More detailed figures reveal that the show averaged 14.2 million American viewers over the course of Season 3 over all platforms, up from the previous rough estimate of 13.6 million. This means that Game of Thrones is a stone's throw away from eclipsing the 14.4 million average that The Sopranos enjoyed over its run. This would make Game of Thrones the biggest-ever show on the network, and there is also some speculation that, combined with international viewership (Game of Thrones is already the most-sold show in HBO's history) and DVD and Blu-Ray sales, the show might already hold that title.

Combined with the recent renewing of True Blood for a seventh season (the record for a dramatic show on the network; Oz and The Sopranos both only managed six seasons, but split one apiece into two seasons for effectively seven), this raises hopes that Game of Thrones will be able to complete it's planned eight-season run on the channel.

Season 4 of Game of Thrones is currently filming, with shooting expected to move from Iceland to Croatia shortly. Season 4 will begin airing in March or April 2014. Season 3 will be released on home media on 18 February 2014.

Ghost, rumor has it Martin has already informed the HBO writers of the complete story arc. So if he drops dead or doesn't manage to complete the series they can still complete the HBO series. And frankly given how the HBO series is better than the book that would be ok (not wanting Martin to die I mean but if he doesn't get the books out in time).

Frank Doelger has said that he thinks they can 'get to' seven seasons. However, Benioff and Weiss (who are the showrunners and thus senior to Doelger) have said consistently since the first season that they are expecting eight seasons or 80 episodes.

With GoT now HBO's most-watched programme in production and about to become its most-watched programme ever, it seems increasingly likely to get there.